F1 finally bursts back into life today as more than half of the 2010 F1 teams send their new cars out on track.

Michael Schumacher will get his first test of the first Mercedes F1 car since 1955. Williams and Toro Rosso will also be showing off their 2010 machines in public for the first time.

Join us and follow the first official test session at Valencia as it happens below.

Testing results

Driver

Car

Best time

Laps

Felipe Massa

Ferrari F10

72.574

102

Pedro de la Rosa

BMW Sauber-Ferrari C29

72.784

74

Michael Schumacher

Mercedes W01

72.947

40

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes W01

73.543

39

Gary Paffett

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25

73.846

86

Rubens Barrichello

Williams-Cosworth FW32

74.449

75

Sebastien Buemi

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR5

74.762

18

Robert Kubica

Renault R30

75.000

69

Testing notes

The greatest point of interest today is the first official appearance of three new cars – the Mercedes W01, Williams FW32 and Toro Rosso STR5. The latter is especially interesting as it’s the first car the team have built without the assistance of sister team Red Bull (although certain common parts are allowed).

There’s lots more to look out for at the first test. Besides the first appearances of drivers at new teams (see below) we’ll also see the first Cosworth-powered F1 car since 2006 and BMW Sauber’s return to Ferrari power.

For all the anticipation, today will probably be a low-key day in terms of actual running. Expect lots of installation laps and settings checks. Reading too much into testing is a mug’s game at the best of times – especially on day one.

As tests go on we’ll build up data on which drivers and teams have done the most laps and had the most time in their cars.

The last F1 test at the track I can find times for was BMW in February 2008 – Nick Heidfeld did a 1’12.258. Two weeks before that Heikki Kovalainen did a 1’11.000 in a McLaren. But these were 2008-spec cars, of course.

Looking at the track layout I don’t think we’d see good races here at all – it’s far too short, tight and twisty. On the few occasions GP2 raced here the races were no good and if the GP2 cars can’t have a good race on it F1 definitely can’t.